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eMOLT Update 2023-09-08
This week, eMOLT entered a new fishery, thanks to support from the
Cooperative Research Branch at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center.
Lontime CRB partner the F/V Bookie, a tilefish longliner fishing out of
Long Island joined the eMOLT fleet on Thursday. Jack from the Study
Fleet program and George met with Captain Rob at Goodison Shipyard in
Rhode Island to install the new system. We look forward to having some
new temperature profiles from the shelf break south of Long Island.

JiM got time this past week to work on a new satellite-tracked
surface drifter design. After testing the prototype Falmouth Harbor (see
photos), he found more ballast needed below the foam-filled mast. The
objective in this buoyless case, as in all previous designs, is to
minimize windage, maintain oceanographic standards in approximate
size/shape, minimizes dangers to both mariners and wildlife, and
experiment with new more eco-friendly low-cost materials. 
George also worked up some new, more detailed data products for an
interested captain including 3D plots of gear tows, and trip by trip
summaries of bottom temperatures. If you’re interested in a more
detailed look at the bottom data collected on your vessel beyond just
what we can produce on the deckboxes, please feel free to reach out by
phone, text, or email. You collect the data, and we want to make it
useful for you.

Some areas of low DO showed up in central and western parts of Cape
Cod Bay this week, although the very low DO areas observed in the last
few weeks off Wellfleet appear to be clearing up.
In news from the north, the DO loggers we’ve deployed with realtime
systems in the Gulf of Maine continue to produce readings in the normal
range.

Forecasts
NECOFS Bottom Temperature Forecast


Doppio Bottom Temperature Forecast

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Capt. Rob on the Bookie for taking the time to meet with
Jack and George yesterday. It was a sweaty day to be baking on the
tarmac, but we appreciate you saving us the drive down to Long
Island.
A big thanks also to Huanxin who mailed the final deckboxes for our
2024 Gulf of Maine expansion up to our colleagues at the Lobster
Institute, built the deckbox for the F/V Bookie, and made some upgrades
to the deckbox software this week.
Announcements
- In other weather news, Hurricane Lee is building strength ESE of
Puerto Rico. The official NOAA forecast expects the storm to be between
the Bahamas and Bermuda by the middle of next week.

Models run in the Global Ensemble Prediction System (GEPS) – longer
time series and less certain – show a range of possible tracks for later
in the week. Most seem to put the storm east of Cape Cod, but a few
models have the storm grazing the Cape.

The next meeting
of the New England Fisheries Management Council will be September
25-28 in Plymouth, MA.
Saildrone is operating two Uncrewed Surface Vessels in the
eastern third of the Gulf of Maine to collect high resolution
bathymetric data from August 28 - October 18. Coordinates by date and
contact information can be found here
All the best, George and JiM
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